Posted on 06/11/2013 1:14:26 PM PDT by NoLibZone
WASHINGTON — President Obama held an off-the-record meeting with select reporters from some of the nation’s largest print and online outlets Monday, in the White House’s latest effort to placate an increasingly restive press corps.
White House officials regularly meet with reporters for so-called “background briefing sessions,” where the attendees cannot be mentioned by name nor quoted directly, but Monday’s meeting was different. Initially billed as a conversation with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, the president made a surprise appearance — a very unusual move — and the White House placed the proceedings off the record beforehand. The meeting came amid a series of scandals crashing over the White House that has placed the administration on defense in a way it hasn’t been until now.
Relations between the press and the White House have been especially fraught since last month’s revelation that the Justice Department had covertly collected phone records from Associated Press reporters in pursuit of locating the source of a national security leak. When the Justice Department sought to hold an off-the-record meeting with journalists to discuss its investigation, news outlets pushed back, with the New York Times publicly refusing to attend.
Reporters who attended Monday’s session with the president were loathe to discuss it with BuzzFeed, citing the White House’s stipulation that the meeting remain off the record. But the session came after the White House announced a “travel/photo lid” for the day — White House parlance for no more events, and the signal for the pool reporter to go home — and reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Time, McClatchy, Politico, Tribune, NPR, Bloomberg, USA Today, AFP, Yahoo and other outlets were milling around the briefing room waiting to be called in.
(Excerpt) Read more at buzzfeed.com ...
Words. Fail. Me.
Probably showing them the information they’ve gathered on them from PRISM and threatening them to make the scandals go away.
Nothing to say.
Sickening!!!
Transparency.
Will these Reporters( LOL ) put up a weekly paycheck from the White House now ?
Did they kiss his hand?
Welcome to the USSA. Enjoy your worker’s paradise, comrade, or else!
Disgusting, this is the second time bozo has done this in recent weeks!
this guy belongs on a pike.
Transparent he is. Most Freepers saw through him from the beginning.
Getting their latest marching orders from Jarrett and a pep talk by Dear Leader.
A “come to Jesus” meeting, or are the ‘mount’ing scandals coming to Mohammed?
Not his hand . . .
On the other hand if he was closing the sale, I don’t think we’d see him keep going back to the well on this.
I know...I know
How pathetic!
Now the prez uses the press against the American people instead of personal gain! The press affiliation that sent the reporters should be boycotted untill they dry up and blow away!
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